Is remembering Krishna the highest service and all other services are for those who can’t remember him constantly?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna has plans and our devotion is expressed not just by our meditating on Krishna but by our trying to fulfill the desires of Krishna and when we are fulfilling the desire of Krishna at that time to fulfill that desire we may have to do many things which may not be directly connected with Krishna say in today’s world say the internet and social media videos are all very they have a very big range so if somebody decides to make some good quality video for Krishna now they may have to learn this software, they may have to learn this learn this, watch this, who does what now I am writing, I try to write for Krishna so when I asked a senior devotee how can I improve my writing, he gave me a long list of books which he could read and most of them were not books by devotees at that time I asked him yes, for your spiritual growth we should learn read books by Ishta Prabhupada and Aracharyas but if you want to learn a particular skill then you have to go where that skill is exhibited and learn from that so now while reading books on writing while reading books on video editing or even for that matter if somebody is learning about painting doing some decoration for Krishna now decoration itself can be an elaborate art and somebody may go and decide to learn about decoration now while they are learning about decoration is it that they will always be thinking about Krishna and if somebody says that no if I am not always thinking about Krishna I won’t do that service so if it is required for our service to Krishna to do a particular service then our focus is on doing that service we want to of course remember Krishna we are doing that service because Krishna wants us to do that service in that sense the recollection of Krishna is in the intention for doing that action but the recollection that of Krishna that is recommended in devotion especially by Ishta Prabhupada is not a passive meditation on Krishna’s pastimes alone that is also important and we can’t just be doing only services without hearing about Krishna unless we give intellectual and emotional substance to our memory of direct Krishna connected substance then we will not have enough substance to maintain our desire to serve Krishna so hearing about Krishna is important so that we can remember him but at our functional level it is more important to do the service than to cultivate the remembrance, this is not to minimize remembrance but it is to contextualize it is not that just by hearing about Krishna more and more our remembrance of Krishna will increase because remembrance of Krishna increases by the attachment to Krishna and attachment to Krishna comes primarily by the mercy of Krishna the mercy of Krishna comes when we please his devotees so we serve Krishna practically and for that if certain things require us to the remembrance of Krishna is not the intention but even if practically it is not there that is not that consequential, basically it is a matter of what is in the foreground and what is in the background so initially when we start doing something new say first time I came to America several years ago I was very conscious, oh I am in America for many Indians, America is the land of their dreams and so that time the external of where I was speaking about Krishna was very important oh I am speaking in this city, I am speaking in this city I am going to this country but after few years of traveling now where I am speaking is not as important as what I am speaking so the context is also important, no doubt but the context is not as important as the context so what happens is there are certain things in the foreground and certain things in the background of our consciousness so initially when we engage in bhakti the material situation in the foreground of our consciousness and Krishna is in the background see if you are working at a new job ok this person works like this this boss is like this, this colleague is like this we familiarize ourselves with the external situation quite a bit and that time we will be thinking about the externals but after a period of time when you come there, you focus on your job so similarly for us actually as we keep practicing bhakti initially the external world is in the foreground of our consciousness and Krishna is in the background but as we keep practicing bhakti steadily, then Krishna comes in the foreground of our consciousness and the external world goes into the background doesn’t mean that we are not aware of it we are definitely aware of it but that is not the most important thing so that’s how recollection of Krishna will become steadier and deeper just by this consistent practice of bhakti even if presently that bhakti is not done with the constant recollection of Krishna, even if it is a background intention, I am doing this for Krishna that itself is progressive on the spiritual path